


Monday Morning After

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Het, Non-Canon Relationship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3877009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the Monday morning after Iris's wedding, Joe has a visitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monday Morning After

**Author's Note:**

> For the one million words rainy days and Monday's challenge.   
> Prompt: I'm calling you out for calling in sick.
> 
> It is possible I may have veered from the exact parameters.

If morning, as Barry used to assert when he was a teenager, is the first two hours after you wake up, then it is Monday morning when Joe hears a knock on the door. His first impulse is to ignore it, to let whoever it is come back at a time when he's more receptive to visitors, say sometime in the next millennium. When the knock comes again, louder this time, more insistent, the urge is the same. When the knock comes a third time, however, this time a rapid rat-a-tat that's eerily reminiscent of machine gun fire, he figures he'd better answer before whoever it is comes through the door. 

When he finds Caitlin standing on the step, hand poised to knock again, he wishes he'd stuck to his guns. 

"Are you ok?" They are the first words out of Caitlin's mouth and she's staring at him with pursed lips and a furrowed brow, looking him up and down as if for any signs of injury. Joe's suddenly thankful that he at least managed to get dressed when he got up; jeans and a t-shirt may not be what Caitlin usually sees him in, but it's a far cry from the t-shirt (a different one, he's not a total slob) and boxers he'd been in an hour ago. 

"Why wouldn't I be?" She doesn't actually wait for an answer, moving past him and dropping her purse on the couch. Her coat follows immediately after and she crosses her arms over her chest as she looks at him. She shifts on her feet before she speaks and the thought comes to him that with her worry spent, she looks nervous suddenly.

"I stopped by the precinct," she says and he blinks in surprise. "They told me you called in sick. I just wanted to check you were ok."

He tilts his head. "You went to the precinct to look for me?"

She bites her lip, shifts on her feet again and there's no mistaking the nerves this time. "I thought you might like to get some lunch."

"You went to the precinct to ask me to lunch?"

Caitlin's cheeks flush but she stands her ground. "I haven't seen you since Friday night," she says and the memory of that night has his cheeks flushing, has him shifting nervously on his feet. Caitlin doesn't miss his obvious discomfort, her frown making a comeback. "What's wrong?"

Joe presses his lips together, decides that beating around the bush won't get him where he wants to go. "You mean you haven't seen me since I drunkenly groped and kissed you at my daughter's wedding," he said and her eyes grew wide. "When you said you were at the precinct, I thought it might be to file charges."

A burst of laughter is Caitlin's first response and strangely, it makes Joe feel better. "You do remember," she reminds him, "that I have the meta human ability to freeze you to ice if you upset me?" The fact that she can joke about it is still relatively new, the words  making Joe double take as much as the meaning. "The fact that I didn't... I thought that would be a clue... Detective."

Dating may have been low on Joe's list of priorities for a long time but he knows flirting when he sees it. "I may have been distracted," he allows. "My daughter's wedding and all... besides, your dress..." He grins at the memory, lets his voice trail off and there is an answering grin on Caitlin's face. 

"Ah." She takes a step towards him, then another, doesn't stop until she's standing right in front of him.  "Just so we're clear... We may both have been tipsy... But any groping or kissing that was going on? Definitely mutual. And I wanted to ask you to lunch today to make sure it wasn't some kind of weird clothes fluke or something..."

"Clothes fluke?" It sounds more like something Cisco would come out with and when her lips twist, he gets the feeling that that may have been just what happened. 

"You looked very handsome in your tux," she tells him and while her voice may be prim, there is nothing proper about the way her hands land on his chest, slide up to his shoulders. 

This time, good detective that he is, he picks up the clues she's laying down, lets his hands rest on her hips and pull her close to him and bring his lips to hers. 

They learn two things. 

First, it definitely wasn't a clothes fluke. 

Second, clothes are definitely over-rated. 


End file.
